Wanted: Water cans in buses to quench parched throats

Hyderabad: With no drinking water facility in TSRTC buses, drivers and conductors are forced to fill collect water from road-side free taps. Activists have urged the corporation to provide drinking water cans in buses.

The drivers and conductors are left with no choice but to fill water bottles at stations or at free taps. At Lakdikapul, a woman conductor filled a water bottle at a free tap on the road. "Not all bus stops or bus stations have drinking water facility. Whenever we (driver and conductor) need we fill water at free tap on the road," she said.

Dr Lubna Sarwath, a city-based social activist, raised the issue of providing water cans in RTC buses. She said "why our RTC bus conductors have to depend on charitable drinking water, there must be a water can on the bus. Not songs and TVs, provide cool water cans for the bus driver and conductor in every bus, specially non-AC vehicles exclusively only for staff, with TSRTC emblem. The cans can be fixed near the driver cabin," she said. She said the RTC staff had been facing difficulties when they needed drinking water, during peak hours when the bus would be full.

"I am a proud RTC regular commuter; I observed several times that they had to search for free tap to fill their water bottles. However, if there is a rush or a traffic jam, the driver has to look for a water can on roadside to fill his bottle," she added.

On condition of anonymity, a driver at Midhani depot said when the bus is stopped for a few minutes at any major depot, the conductor fills water bottles. And thereafter, when we need, we will fill water at camps set up for a social cause on roads. "If water cans are provided in a bus for the staff, it would help for us the whole day and would avoid stops for filling water on roads," he said.